


day 8: childhood friends

by ketUPqUeEn_boiiii



Series: ketchupqueen's Timari January [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/M, Timari January (DCU & Miraculous Ladybug)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28622562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ketUPqUeEn_boiiii/pseuds/ketUPqUeEn_boiiii
Summary: Tim and Mari meet at a Wayne Gala.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: ketchupqueen's Timari January [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129016
Comments: 3
Kudos: 147





	day 8: childhood friends

The Culpa family were Waynes of Europe. They own Culpa Consolidated, a company rivaling Wayne Enterprises in not only their income, but reputation. C.C. owns many establishments across Europe and is spreading to Asia and the Americas. It's is known for their funding of causes, well payed employees, and its 'puts-up-with-no-bullshit' CEO, Felix Culpa. 

Every business person knows the rules of making business with C.C. 

1\. No Touching

2\. No Getting Off-Topic at Meetings

And most of all,

3\. No Talking About The Culpa Family

Everybody knows that Felix is a widow, raising his daughter by himself, with only the help of his in-laws and mother. The first time a potential client brought up his family, they ended up getting fired from their company for ruining a business deal. There are no pictures or information on his daughter on the internet, everyone in the building has signed an NDA. 

Anyone who thinks that Felix's cold exterior would make him a bad parent is wrong. Felix would sooner stab himself in the eye with a fork than ever treat his little flower as anything less than a princess. 

He used to catastrophize to Bridgette, late at night when she was pregnant with Marinette. He was terrified that he'd be a horrible father. 

_'Just like his.'_ The bastard who left his mother when he was just a child and then returned later when he was a teen to harass her. 

But Bridgette always made sure he understood that he'd _never_ be that man. That wasn't Felix's problem right now. It was taking Marinette to her first publicized gala.

~

"Little Flower, you remember the rules, correct?" Marinette nodded yes for the third time that night. She understood her papa wanted to keep her safe, she wanted her papa to be safe too, but she's 9! She's a big girl, she can take care of herself. 

All of her martial arts teachers made sure of that. 

"If someone tries drag me away I yell, if everything gets to much I come find you, don't cause trouble, don't let anyone see Tikki or Kaalki or Trixx. I got it, Papa." Marinette was wearing her favorite fancy dress. She saved it just for today, her first gala. She'd been asking her Papa to go to one since she was 6. 

"Okay then, Little Flower, we're here." They step into the Wayne Ballroom.

~

Tim was no stranger to gala's. He had been going since he was a baby. His parents basked in the attention they got from other attendees who coddled him in _'oh look how big you are.'_ and _'look at you. Such a handsome young man.'_ And when the pampering stopped he just spent the rest of the night in the kids room, taking pictures with the camera he smuggled inside. 

Tim knew almost all of the kids who regularly attended galas, they understood that he didn't want to play, so they didn't try to wrap him into their mischief or games. It's not that he didn't like having fun, ever kid did. It's was because his parents made it explicitly clear that if he caused a scene, there would be consequences. 

So it confused him when he saw a girl his age he didn't recognize. His parent's made sure he could recognize and name anyone important he might ever meet, including their kids. 

She wasn't trying to recruit him into a scheme, so he ignored her and it seemed like she was too.

Until she walked up to him. 

~

Mari really didn't like how all of the people at the gala kept touching her. When her checks weren't being pinched, her hair was being petted. Thank the kwami her Papa excused her to the kids room. 

She started drawing him her picture diary. She didn't finish the page, she had a feeling her night had yet to reach it's climax. 

She noticed a boy her age on the other side of the room and decided to introduce her self. Her Papa's protectiveness had left her in need of friends. Her cousin Adrien was not her friend, he let Chloe bully her and told her that she had to be nicer to Chloe, _if you're extra nice to her she'll be nice to you, that's what the friendship advise videos Natalie shows me say._ At least her Papa let her go to school. It was maximum security and he made sure all of the faculty signed NDAs, but it was something.

"Hi, I'm Marinette!" She had a mix of English and French accent, English from living in London with her Papa and Nan, and French from her conversations with Grand-mère and Grand-père. 

The boy hesitated to answer, "I'm Tim." His disinterested tone would have discouraged most other kids but Marinette was determined.

"Hi Tim! What are you doing?" She sat next to him on the couch. 

"Taking pictures." He really wanted to tell her he didn't want to play but his parents would have his head if she ran off in tears because of him. 

He really didn't like how she was staring at his camera, if she was the _'steal from other kids'_ type he was ready to throw hands, despite how small they were. 

"That's a Nikon D760 DSLR, right?" 

Well, that was unexpected. 

"Yeah... How'd you know that?" Tim didn't mean to be stereotypical but she didn't look like a camera expert. She looked more like someone likely to be caught on the other end to be honest.

"My Uncle Claude uses the same model, he's a photographer for my Papa." 

"Cool," He noticed the book under her arm and couldn't contain his curiosity, "What's that?" 

She looked down at her book. Mari didn't usually let other people look in it, it was one of the only things she had from her Maman. It was a magically endless and her Maman had written a letter for her in on the first page. She rarely even let her Papa see it, but Tim was, for what reason she did not know, special. She could trust him, she didn't know why but she could.

"It's my picture diary. I on each page I make a drawing that sums up my day. Here's yesterday's." She opened the book to the page she drew on the day before. 

~

They had spent the rest of the night talking about whatever they could. They were so deep into their conversation they didn't even notice their parents walk into the room. 

"Tim." Janet's voice surprised him, he froze.

Mari didn't seem to notice his parents, she was distracted by trying to catch glimpse of her Papa in the crowd of parents. "I'll be back in a second, Tim." Great, now his parents could rip into him without worrying about someone hearing.

"What do you think your doing, talking to some random nobody girl? You should be making friends with children of important icons, it's important to make friends with people like that. It will make business better when you're running a company and you have friends in high places." Jack scolds. 

"I better see you on better behavior next gala or so help me-" Janet was interrupted by Mari's introduction. 

"Tim! This is my Papa!" Well Tim really didn't expect this, and from the looks of it, neither did his parents. 

From first look Mari and Felix look nothing alike. But if you stare long enough you see that even though Mari inherited her eyes and hair from her mother, her posture and bone structure matched Felix's. It was clear that Felix had taught his little flower to be a lady, while keeping her personality intact. 

"Mr. Culpa! What a surprise! I didn't know this little angel is your daughter?" Janet's personality change would have given an unprepared fool whiplash. Luckily Tim was neither. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Drake, a pleasure as always. It seem my Marinette has made friends with Tim." He smiles a little.

"I hear you'll be staying in Gotham for some time. We should plan play dates for them! Timmy here doesn't have to many friends, it would good for him to spend time with someone his age." Jack proposes.

With a little convincing from Mari's deadly puppy-dog eyes, Felix, Jack, and Janet plan met up times for the kids.

"You're off the hook this time. Don't mess this up." She whispers to him that night at home. 

Tim was genuinely happy, for the first time in to long. He actually looked forward to the days ahead. Nothing could mess that up, Mari and Tim had something special, they just don't know it yet.


End file.
